Students of contemporary music from across Canada and around the world were invited to apply to the program. Participants had the chance to take part in lessons in composition, electronic music, and contemporary music interpretation with guest artists and composers.

The schedule for private lessons during the symposium will be sent to participants individually.

Special thanks to Tom Lee Music for providing the piano for Open Space’s programming.

Musician Biographies

Tsilumos is a new music ensemble based in Victoria, BC Canada. Since 2011, the ensemble has been performing chamber music ranging from duos to large instrumental combinations. Its main objective is to give new and little-known Canadian and international works an optimal performance, regardless of technical and intellectual demands or compositional style. Since its inception the ensemble has brought high quality, challenging new music to the larger community of British Columbia. In 2011, the ensemble in cooperation with Open Space, an artist-run cultural center in Victoria, created the Salt Festival for New Music.

The Neue Vocalsolisten established as an ensemble specializing in the interpretation of contemporary vocal music in 1984. Founded under the artistic management of Musik der Jahrhunderte, the vocal chamber ensemble has been artistically independent since the year 2000. Each of the seven concert and opera soloists, with a collective range reaching from coloratura soprano over countertenor to “basso profondo”, shapes the work on chamber music and the co-operation with the composers and other interpreters through his/her distinguished artistic creativity. According to the musical requirements a pool of specialist singers complements the basic team. The ensemble’s chief interest lies on research: exploring new sounds, new vocal techniques and new forms of articulation, whereby great emphasis is placed on establishing a dialogue with composers. Each year, the ensemble premiers about twenty new works. Central to the group’s artistic concept are the areas of music theater and the interdisciplinary work with electronics, video, visual arts and literature, as well as the juxtaposition of contrasting elements found in ancient and contemporary music.

Sylvie Lacroix is an accomplished flute soloist and chamber musician with a special emphasis on contemporary and new music. The freelance flutist lives in Vienna, Austria and works regularly with composers side-by-side, searching for new sounds and expressions all the way through until their first performances. This interest in working with living composers has accompanied Sylvie Lacroix since the beginnings of her career. A founding member of Klangforum Wien, she remained an active member until 1997. Presently a member of the Trio AMOS (with accordionist Krassimir Sterev and cellist Michael Moser) as well as the Viennese soloist ensemble PHACE, she has performed the newest solo literature for flute from Salvatore Sciarrino to K.K.Hübler, Chaya Czernowin, Bernhard Lang and numerous young composers and is often a guest performer at various festivals throughout the world.

Cathy Lewis is an ambassador and active exponent of the professional new music and art scene in Canada since 1974, versatile and experimental soprano/voice artist Catherine Fern Lewis graduated from the University of Victoria, B.C. where she specialized in contemporary music. Lewis spent a further three years in Europe, predominantly in Paris, studying French song with the noted Peirre Bernac, Madame Chereau and Winifred Radford. Lewis is frequently heard in traditional repertoire as well as contemporary. She has performed with such groups as the Steve Reich Ensemble, Toronto-based Arraymusic, Vancouver New Music and held invitations to such festivals and conferences as the International Voice Festival in Montreal, Tuning of the World Conference in Banff, the Parry Sound Festival, Sound Symposium in St. John’s Newfoundland and Voice ++ in Victoria, B.C. Catherine has premiered numerous works by Canadian composers, including Murray Adaskin, MIchael Baker, Christopher Butterfield, Kirk Elliott, Nicholas Fairbank, Susan Frykberg, Anna Hostman, Kathy Kennedy, Rudolph Komorous, John Oliver, Tina Pearson, Sylvia Rickard, Robert Rosen, Rodney Sharman, Linda C. Smith, Jeremy Owen Turner, Owen Underhill, John Weinsweig and collaborated with many of the nation’s prominent artists, choreographers, composers and conductors.